GROWING FREEDOM: The instructions of Yoko Ono / The art of John and Yoko
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Vancouver Art Gallery 750 Hornby St, Vancouver, British Columbia V6Z 2H7
GROWING FREEDOM: The instructions of Yoko Ono / The art of John and Yoko is a major survey exhibition that celebrates the work of the renowned conceptual and performance artist.
GROWING FREEDOM underscores the cornerstones of action, participation, and imagination in the work of Yoko Ono and examines the collaborative works she undertook with her late husband John Lennon.
ABOUT YOKO ONO
Yoko Ono is an artist whose thought-provoking work challenges our understanding of art and the world around us. Her interdisciplinary practice—which spans film, performance, conceptual art, activism, music and writing—has questioned the very nature of the art object and has broken down the traditional boundaries between branches of art. Ono was born in Tokyo in 1933. After studying philosophy in Japan, she moved to New York in 1953, and by the late 1950s had become part of the city’s vibrant avant-garde scene, working at the forefront of both Fluxus and Conceptualism. In the early 1960s, while Ono was regularly performing and exhibiting her work, she continued to develop a series of ground-breaking instruction pieces meant to be completed in collaboration with viewers. In 1962, Ono returned to Tokyo for two years, and it was there that she realized and first presented CUT PIECE and published Grapefruit, a collection of conceptual instruction pieces. Three years later, in 1969, Ono staged the BED-IN FOR PEACE and the WAR IS OVER! (If you want it) peace campaign with John Lennon. Ono’s commitment to peace continues to this day with her IMAGINE PEACE TOWER (2007). Over the course of her remarkable career, Ono has exhibited in hundreds of solo and group exhibitions across the globe, including major touring exhibitions, biennales and triennials at such venues as the Japan Society in New York; the Schirn Kunsthalle; the Museum of Modern Art, New York; the Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo (MOT); and the Serralves Museum of Contemporary Art, Portugal. In 2009, she received the Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement at the Venice Biennale.